first-time claim you come back from iraq and afghanistan you ll wait 500 to 600 days. most of these claims still proved on paper. why is it so slow? we don t know. we are looking from the outside, right? it s like looking at a broken down car on the side of the road and saying what is wrong with the engine when we can t look under the hood. they need more people, they got more people. everything they have asked for, congress and the veteran service organizations have given them. but the numbers continue to go up. the backlog continues to climb. that was part of our conversation yesterday on morning joe with the ceo and founder of the iraq and afghanistan s veterans of america paul rye could have expressing his frustration what the veterans face when they file for disability benefits. here with us now is the shift secretary of department of veteran affairs, tommy sowers. appreciate you being here. great to see here. i know you understand why this is so outrageous.
you featured some of these, and the cumbersome process, and the electronics process, and it looked like windows 3.1. and then like windows .31. went to winston-salem, the same office because of the weight of the claims. claims have not just been moved, they have been scanned. we moved into a web based, online service. i invite you to come see it. come see, this is the key year of transition of old offices still dealing with 19th century system and new offices that deal with the 21st century. i will take you up on that, provided you let me ask questions without a minder. i would make that agreement with anybody in a foreign country. i will make that deal with you. deal. tommy sowers. you have a hard job. i appreciate you being here. thank you. we will be right back. n. i took something for my sinuses, but i still have this cough. [ male announcer ] truth is, a lot of sinus products don t treat cough. they don t?
last remark from the current secretary of veterans affairs, eric shinseki, who has not talked much to the national press. maybe that is changing. but i am, for one, delighted to talk to anyone from the v.a. which has been next to impossible for us as a show as we have covered this issue for years now. the agency would not give us anybody to talk to about this, until tonight. joining us tonight for the interview, tommy sowers. prior to being nominated by the president, he served two tours in the war iraq. really nice to see you, not out of politeness, i really am glad you are here. thank you for your focus on this issue. i know you are a daughter of a veteran and i appreciate your focus. i don t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why has the v.a. kept a lo profile and
still dealing with 19th century system and new offices that deal with the 21st century. i will take you up on that, provided you let me ask questions without a minder. i would make that agreement with anybody in a foreign country. i will make that deal with you. deal. tommy sowers. you have a hard job. i appreciate you being here. thank you. we will be right back. if you have high cholesterol, here s some information that may be worth looking into. in a clinical trial versus lipitor, crestor got more high-risk patients bad cholesterol
efficiencies in costs when you have one system that is connected, the technology is the same across a country. i m not surprised to see that kind of differentiation between the states. i am curious i know the affordable care act stresses preventive care and one of the ways to bend the health cost curve so i d love to see those numbers and see what the increases are coming from. the truth is, we don t know yet how much it it will play out because a lot of it it is implemented yet. still ahead from the department of veterans affairs, tommy sowers is here to discuss the backlog many veterans face awaiting their disability benefits. keep it here on morning joe.